This watchdog blog, by journalist Norman Oder, offers analysis, commentary, and reportage about the $4.9 billion project to build the Barclays Center arena and 16 high-rise buildings at a crucial site in Brooklyn. Dubbed Atlantic Yards by developer Forest City Ratner in 2003, it was rebranded Pacific Park Brooklyn in 2014 after the Chinese government-owned Greenland Group bought a 70% stake in 15 towers. New York State still calls it Atlantic Yards. Note: archive at right.

There's a meeting Wednesday on planned street closings for the Atlantic Yards project, at Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, 85 South Oxford Street in Fort Greene, from 6-8 pm. Representatives of the Department of Transportation (DOT) and Forest City Ratner (FCR) will appear.

According to a press release from City Council Member Letitia James's office, the streets "are now expected to close on March 1." But that assumes that state Supreme Court Justice Abraham Gerges will have ruled on the condemnations by then, and he hasn't--yet.

Meanwhile, the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoodshas asked the DOT to make several changes regarding Atlantic Yards, including the swift reopening of the Carlton Avenue Bridge. Similar questions were previously raised by the Dean Street Block Association. So we'll see if DOT has any response tomorrow.

February 1 closings delayed

Faced with a novel challenge to the planned condemnation of property for the Atlantic Yards project, Gerges on January 29 put the condemnation--and thus the closures--on hold.

At prior meetings, held last month, representatives of both FCR and DOT assumed that the closures--Fifth Avenue between Flatbush and Atlantic avenues, and Pacific Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues and Carlton and Vanderbilt Avenues--were on track for February 1.

1. Remove the Variable Message Signs The signs were put in place to announce street closings which cannot happen until the courts rule with finality on the eminent domain question. This may not happen for months, or years. Despite the huge Variable Message Signs being dark and without message, they remain in place, depriving our neighborhoods of always scarce parking spaces. The VMS also seriously impede pedestrian passage where erected on the bluestone sidewalks of the Prospect Heights Historic District, Ft. Greene, and Park Slope. The signs can easily be stored locally.

Well, Gerges said he'd "proceed promptly" and, even if an appeal is filed, a stay is not automatic. So it could be resolved soon. Then again, everything with Atlantic Yards has taken much longer than before.

2. Do not change the 1-way status of Carlton Avenue or 6th Avenue Changing the traffic flow of these few-block changes would deprive the neighborhood of scarce parking spaces, as well as confuse drivers familiar with those 1-way streets. Nearby, the 1-way block of Underhill Ave. that was made 2-way between Atlantic Ave./Pacific St. is quite dangerous due to unaware, inattentive drivers.

DOT approved plans generated by Forest City Ratner consultant Sam Schwartz Engineering. Some more public justification is clearly in order.

CBN: keep Pacific Street open

CBN asked:

3. Keep Pacific Street between Vanderbilt and 6th Avenue open for traffic and parking. Make Pacific Street (Vanderbilt-6th Ave.) 1-way WestAgain, this street closure is premature but changing direction of this block of Pacific Street would accommodate the traffic changes put in place earlier by DOT and facilitate the continuing 1-way status of Carlton Ave. (North) and 6th Avenue (South).

Well, closing Pacific Street was studied in the environmental review, and it's part of Forest City Ratner's plans for parking, staging, and, ultimately, open space.

CBN: reopen the Carlton Avenue Bridge

CBN asked:

4. Rebuild and restore the Carlton Avenue Bridge to the NYC street grid NOW. The Carlton Avenue Bridge, a critical emergency-response route used by the FDNY & NYPD, was eliminated more than 2 years ago without advance notice even to the Fire Station a block away. It is necessary to public safety. Yet, Brooklyn has been deprived of this most important link between neighborhoods -- walking, biking, driving -- not for the 8 months promised, but for 26 months so far! Neither the Empire State Development Corp. nor Forest City Ratner will give a deadline for re-opening the Carlton Avenue Bridge. The Department of Transportation must exercise its responsibilities to the health and safety of the citizens of New York City, not the amorphous project timelines of a corporate developer who cannot claim to have a project plan or timeline.

Actually, the plan is now to reopen the bridge in April 2012. It closed in January 2008 and in January 2009, the DOT said the work "is scheduled for completion January 2010."

The developer is clearly in charge of the process-why?

CBN: construction traffic

CBN asked:

5. Insure that Construction Traffic, the Big Rigs, be confined to the Big Truck Routes, Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues Large construction and service vehicles must be confined to the major streets surrounding the proposed Atlantic Yards footprint and NOT be allowed to truckquake and rattle our homes on the residential streets of Prospect Heights, Park Slope, Ft. Greene, and Boerum Hill. In the Final Environmental Impact Statement the DOT gave assurances to the Community that this would be enforced; the Community expects this assurance to be enforced.

This is a prospective question regarding enforcement, so we'll see what DOT says.

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Ratner has also taken up almost the entire eastern sidewalk of Flatbush between Atlantic and 5th and/or Dean. The only part left is a narrow strip right over the subway grating, which I am sure is not ADA compliant. I wish the CBN would include this in their list of complaints.

While that's part of the lawsuit, more prominent are claims of racial discrimination and retaliation, with black employees claiming repeated abuse by white supervisors, preferential treatment toward Hispanic colleagues, and retaliation in response to complaints.

Two individual supervisors, for example, are charged with referring to black employees as “black motherfucker,” “dumb black bitch,” “black monkey,” “piece of shit” and “nigger.”

Two have referred to an employee blind in one eye as “cyclops,” and “the one-eyed guy,” and an employee with a nose disorder as “the nose guy.”

There's been no official response yet though arena spokesman Barry Baum told the Daily News they, but take “allegations of this kind very seriously” and have "a zero tolerance policy for…

To supporters of Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards project, it's a long-awaited plan for long-overlooked land. "The Atlantic Yards area has been available for any developer in America for over 100 years,” declared Borough President Marty Markowitz at a 5/26/05 City Council hearing.

Charles Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, mused on 11/15/05 to WNYC's Brian Lehrer, “Isn’t it interesting that these railyards have sat for decades and decades and decades, and no one has done a thing about them.” Forest City Ratner spokesman Joe DePlasco, in a 12/19/04 New York Times article ("In a War of Words, One Has the Power to Wound") described the railyards as "an empty scar dividing the community."

But why exactly has the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Vanderbilt Yard never been developed? Do public officials have some responsibility?

At right is a photo of a poster spotted in Hasidic Williamsburg right. Clearly there's an event scheduled at the Barclays Center aimed at the Haredi Jewish community (strict Orthodox Jews who reject secular culture), but the lack of English text makes it cryptic.

The website Matzav.com explains, Protest Against Israeli Draft of Bnei Yeshiva Rescheduled for Barclays Center:
A large asifa to protest the drafting of bnei yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel into the Israeli army that had been set to take place this month will instead be held on Sunday, 17 Sivan/June 11, at the Barclays Center in Downtown Brooklyn, NY.
So attendees at a big gathering will protest an apparent change of policy that will make it much more difficult for traditional Orthodox Jewish students--both Hasidic (who follow a rebbe) and non-Hasidic (who don't)--to get deferments from the draft. Comments on the Yeshiva World website explain some of the debate.

First mentioned in April, the Atlantic Yards project in Atlanta is moving ahead--and has the potential to nudge Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn further down in Google searches.

According to a 5/30/17 press release, Hines and Invesco Real Estate Announce T3 West Midtown and Atlantic Yards:
Hines, the international real estate firm, and Invesco Real Estate, a global real estate investment manager, today announced a joint venture on behalf of one of Invesco Real Estate’s institutional clients to develop two progressive office projects in Atlanta totalling 700,000 square feet. T3 West Midtown will be a 200,000-square-foot heavy timber office development and Atlantic Yards will consist of 500,000 square feet of progressive office space in two buildings. Both projects are located on sites within Atlantic Station in the flourishing Midtown submarket.
Hines will work with Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture (HPA) as the design architect for both T3 West Midtown and Atlantic Yards. DLR Group will be t…

Pacific Park Brooklyn is seriously delayed, Forest City Realty Trust said yesterday in a news release, which further acknowledged that the project has caused a $300 million impairment, or write-down of the asset, as the expected revenues no longer exceed the carrying cost.

The Cleveland-based developer, parent of Brooklyn-based Forest City Ratner, which is a 30% investor in Pacific Park along with 70% partner/overseer Greenland USA, blamed the "significant impairment" on an oversupply of market-rate apartments, the uncertain fate of the 421-a tax break, and a continued increase in construction costs.

While the delay essentially confirms the obvious, given that two major buildings have not launched despite plans to do so, it raises significant questions about the future of the project, including:if market-rate construction is delayed, will the affordable h…

Real Estate Weekly, reporting on trends in Chinese investment in New York City, on 11/18/15 quoted Jim Costello, a senior vice president at research firm Real Capital Analytics:
“They’re typically building high-end condos, build it and sell it. Capital return is in a few years. That’s something that is ingrained in the companies that have been coming here because that’s how they’ve grown in the last 35 years. It’s always been a development game for them. So they’re just repeating their business model here,” he said.
When I read that last November, I didn't think it necessarily applied to Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, now 70% owned (outside of the Barclays Center and B2 modular apartment tower), by the Greenland Group, owned significantly by the Shanghai government.
A majority of the buildings will be rentals, some 100% market, some 100% affordable, and several--the last several built--are supposed to be 50% market/50% subsidized. (See tentative timetable below.)Selling development …

As I've written, Mayor Bill de Blasio sure knows how to steer and spin coverage of his affordable housing initiatives.

Indeed, his latest announcement, claiming significant progress, came with a pre-press release op-ed in the New York Daily News and then a friendly photo-op press conference with an understandably grateful--and very lucky--winner of an affordable housing lottery.

To me, though, the most significant quote came from Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, who, as the Wall Street Journal reported:
said public housing had been “starved” of federal support for years now, leaving the city with fewer ways of creating affordable housing. “Are we relying too heavily on the private sector?” she said. “There is no alternative.”
Though Glen was using what she surely sees as a common-sense phrase, it recalls the slogan of a politician with whom I doubt de Blasio identifies: former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, a Conservative who believed in free markets.